SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 1, 2016 / -- Realtor.com®, a leading online real estate destination operated by News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA]; [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc., today launched a new marketing campaign with actress, producer and director, Elizabeth Banks. Building upon last year's award-winning campaign with Banks, realtor.com®'s new "Own Home" campaign is comprised of TV ads, digital videos and social integrations that cement realtor.com® as the most trusted and comprehensive source of real estate information for home buyers, sellers and dreamers.
"Our business is stronger than ever and we're keeping our foot on the accelerator with the debut of this new campaign that educates consumers on what we do best – help people dream of a new home, find a home they love and own their perfect home," said Ryan O'Hara, chief executive officer for realtor.com.® "After an impactful first year, we expect this year's enhanced message and unique storytelling to help educate consumers about the home buying process and make it more approachable."
With the tagline of "Dream home. Find home. Own home," the campaign brings to life the home search process on realtor.com.® The ads are a humorous blend of home ownership fantasies and buying tips that feature Banks crashing people's dreams as they imagine the perfect spot in their perfect home. Dreaming of a bathroom with dual showerheads, where the razor shaves you and you emerge with the perfect shaving cream moustache? Banks is there to help, bringing her signature humor, smarts and glamour to fuse together the surreal fantasies of the dream with the benefit of using the realtor.com® app to find a home with that perfect bathroom.
"With more homes for sale on realtor.com® than any other home search site or app, we strive to provide buyers with the comprehensive listings and tools they need to simplify the home buying process," said Nate Johnson, chief marketing officer at Move, Inc. "The 'Own Home' campaign uses familiar situations and humor to make home-searchers and buyers more confident."
Created by Pereira & O'Dell New York, alongside Andrew Strickman, Move's head of brand and chief creative, the "Own Home" campaign features five TV spots that reinforce realtor.com's® for-sale listings leadership. In addition, the brand will launch an eight-episode digital series of home buying tips with Banks where she "interviews" real estate savvy characters from her own dreams – including a not-so-friendly T-Rex, her middle school crush and a magical pony. The company will also broaden the campaign's digital reach with a series of platform-specific video vignettes across Instagram and Facebook.
The TV ads debut on June 1 and will run across major broadcast networks and cable channels, including CBS, HGTV, Bravo, TBS, TLC and Spike. The campaign will also appear on NBC in June during the P&G Men's and Women's Gymnastics Championships on the Road to Rio lead up to the 2016 Olympics. The social executions will begin to rollout later this month, with the digital tips featuring Banks going live this summer.
Dream Bathroom
Dream Deck
Realtor.com® debuted its first marketing campaign with Elizabeth Banks in May 2015, which nabbed many awards for its original five-episode, digital video series providing practical, humorous advice to first-time home buyers. The "Home-Buying Process in Plain English with Elizabeth Banks" received three Webby Awards, including top honors in the categories of Video Series and How-To/DIY Video as well as The People's Voice Award for Online Video Series. MediaPost's Online Marketing Media and Advertising Awards (OMMA) honored the series for its Use of Humor in the category of Online Advertising Creativity, while the One Screen Awards named it the winner of the branded content category. It was also recognized with two Gold and two Silver Awards by W3 for Branded Content, and Elizabeth Banks received the AdWeek Watch Award for Top Female Talent.
The campaign launches at a time of record breaking growth for realtor.com®. In April, realtor.com® unique users reached 55 million, up 25 percent from last year and average monthly unique users grew to 50 million in the first quarter of 2016, up 30 percent from last year.
